Alasdair Stuart

Kickstarting: Uncanny Magazine Year 2: Return of the Space Unicorn

I am belligerently optimistic when it comes to short fiction. It’s a medium I’ve seen do nothing but expand since I first painstakingly downloaded a Pseudopod episode via dialup just under ten years ago. Anthologies, podcasts, magazines and new delivery systems like Patreon have all combined to make the short not just a viable market but an essential one. One that, with Mothership Zeta, Escape Artists is working to add to.

Now, I’m delighted to see Uncanny magazine, one of the very best of the new wave, go in for it’s second year. Like the first, they’re kickstarting it and like the first they’re being resolutely upfront about what they need the money for. Here it is:

Our current funding goal ($18,700) is for the original version of Uncanny, as we envisioned it (and budgeted for it) at the launch of Year One.

Our funding goal pays for all six issues of Uncanny Year Two, including:

17,000 words of new fiction per issue (3-5 stories, depending on length)

Our Year One backers were so generous we reached all our stretch goals, which added additional stories and essays to each Year One issue. Our awesome backers also sponsored several pieces of original cover art.

Each Stretch Goal we reach in this Year Two Kickstarter will allow us to provide more of the additional content that was so successful in Year One.

These are brilliant, hard working people who want to pay writers and artists for their time and give you their content. I can’t think of anything more laudable in this field than that and I’ll be donating myself shortly at this level:

Pledge $25 or more

SUBSCRIBER: Electronic subscription to Uncanny Year Two in the eBook format of your choice (MOBI, PDF, EPUB); your name listed in issue 7; PLUS copies of Year One’s issues 2, 4, and 5, and our deep thanks.

Go, pledge, I am because they do great work and the more of us that do, the more these projects will continue. The more they continue, the more they’ll inspire others and the more successful those are the more still more people will be inspired. This is why I’m passionate about crowdfunding in this industry in particular. In return for a small investment, you get vast gains that help countless authors further down the line. You get, in short, to change this weird, insular, grumpy little industry for the better, for everyone. And to read some awesome new stories too.